Deadly thunderstorms hit coast

Powerful thunderstorms surged all the way to the sea on Sunday, triggering lightning that killed one man and injured about a dozen others at Venice Beach and sent people scurrying for cover along most of the San Diego County coastline.

The unstable air also produced brief but intense downpours, dropping almost 0.60'' of rain in Del Mar and 0.29'' in Solana Beach. The National Weather Service recorded 138 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes, mostly from Mission Beach to Encinitas and at Palomar Mountain. The storms caused isolated power outages in Torrey Pines, Mira Mesa, Scripps Ranch, Sorrento Valley, University City and Del Mar.

"There was leftover circulation from the thunderstorms that hit Arizona on Saturday night, which pushed the monsoon moisture to the coast," said Tina Stall, a weather service forecaster.

Thunderstorms are common in East County during the summer. But the systems rarely have enough energy to flow west to local beaches. The weather service says a fresh round of thunderstorms could hit on Monday, but they'll be confined to the mountains and deserts.

The storms reached the San Diego County coast at about 7:30 a.m. and spread out, producing booms and crackles that lasted, on-and-off, until after 11 a.m. in many coastal areas. The Palomar Mountain area got hit at around 1:30 p.m. At roughly the same time, unstable air flowed into the Venice Beach-Malibu area, generating lightning that caught many beach-goers by surprise. The lightning killed one man and injured others, the Associated Press says.

Making practical use of Sunday's showers in Carmel Valley.

Courtesy of Gil Field

Making practical use of Sunday's showers in Carmel Valley.

Making practical use of Sunday's showers in Carmel Valley. (Courtesy of Gil Field)